AFTER THE WEDDING is second book in Courtney Milan's Worth
Saga. Book 1, ONCE UPON A
MARQUESS, was released in 2015, and HER EVERY
WISH, novella #1.5 in 2016. It's been awhile since we've
seen the Worth family. The head of the Worth family, the
Earl of Chaford, was discovered committing treason. He was
stripped of his title and property, and committed suicide.
His oldest son was transported to Australia, where he
disappeared.
Lady Camilla is the middle Worth daughter. She elected as a
15-year-old girl to go to live with her uncle when her
father killed himself. In punishment for not staying instead
with the rest of the family, her sister Judith told Camilla
that she was dead to them. Camilla's uncle rapidly passed
her on to another relative, and poor Camilla was then passed
from household to household, slowly becoming more and more
of an unpaid drudge. The household Camilla starts this story
in is headed by a hateful rector who makes her work for half
wages and convinces her to change her last name in order to
not disgrace her family. The rector abruptly forces Camilla
to marry a stranger at gunpoint.
Adrian Hunter is the nephew of a duke who is unacknowledged
because he is half black. His uncle, the Bishop of
Gainshire, coerces Adrian into spying on a rival bishop by
dangling the promise of familial acceptance in front of
Adrian. In his role as a fake valet for the other bishop,
Adrian is forced into this shotgun wedding with Camilla.
Marriages of convenience that turn into true love are one of
my favorite historical tropes. But there are so many things
that mar my enjoyment of this story.
First and foremost is the fact that I don't particularly
care for either of the main characters. Camilla is such a
relentlessly hopeful person, and it really annoys me. She
deliberately looks at a poor situation and decides that she
will choose the hopeful outlook. That should be a good
thing, right?! Somehow, it's simply annoying to me. And
Adrian, continuing to choose to hope that his uncle will
stop being racist and acknowledge him. How is he so
willfully blind?! These two sweet and optimistic characters
also definitely don't embody the opposites attract theory,
so some of the book tension is dissipated. The main tension
is provided from Adrian adamantly assuming they will get an
annulment if they remain chaste, and Camilla wanting to
seduce Adrian in order to turn their white marriage into a
true communion of souls and bodies.
I feel badly that I don't like AFTER THE WEDDING very much.
I really respect Courtney Milan as a person. I like her
activism. I like her points of view about current events. I
know some of the horrible story of what happened to the
author in her life under her real name while clerking for a
federal judge. I know she folded some of her life
experiences into this book, and knowing how much I support
and empathize with her situation, it stymies me that I don't
love this book. I feel guilty typing that sentence right
now, actually. There are so many sentences describing how
the characters think--things that are progressive, that are
healing, that are self-affirming--things that resonate with
me in regards to my personal beliefs. Yet Milan's AFTER THE
WEDDING simply does not resonate with me as a romance.
Here's hoping book three will be a better fit for me.
The only thing more inconvenient than Camilla's marriage
at gunpoint is falling in love with her unwilling groom...
Adrian Hunter, the son of a duke's daughter and a black
abolitionist, is determined to do whatever his family
needs-even posing as a valet to gather information. But his
mission spirals out of control when he's accused of
dastardly intentions and is forced to marry a woman he's
barely had time to flirt with.
Camilla Worth has always dreamed of getting married, but a
marriage where a pistol substitutes for "I do" is not the
relationship she hoped for. Her unwilling groom insists they
need to seek an annulment, and she's not cruel enough to
ruin a man's life just because she yearns for one person to
care about her.
As Camilla and Adrian work to prove their marriage wasn't
consensual, they become first allies, then friends. But the
closer they grow, the more Camilla's heart aches. If they
consummate the marriage, he'll be stuck with her forever.
The only way to show that she cares is to make sure he can
walk away for good…
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy